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5/30/2011

Just like the other film adaptations of Agatha Christie's works, The Mirror Crack'd has a star-studded cast. This time it includes Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Kim Novak, Tony Curtis, Geraldine Chaplin, Edward Fox, and Angela Lansbury. A then-unknown Pierce Brosnan also makes an uncredited appearance. This 1980 crime/mystery/thriller was helmed by Guy Hamilton, a director best known for his James Bond films.

Despite being a murder mystery, the film is packed with hilarious one-liners like:

5/15/2011

The Criterion Collection is a video distribution company that publishes "the greatest films from around the world." (In DVD and Blu-ray formats.)

In other words, if a film gets a "Criterion treatment" then it must be great. Every month, Criterion asks "a friend — a filmmaker, a programmer, a writer, an actor, an artist — to select their ten favorite movies available from the Criterion Collection and jot down their thoughts about them."

I love their Top 10 Lists, which include lists by Steve Buscemi, Jane Campion, James Franco, Guy Maddin, Paul Schrader, etc. Criterion doesn't even know I exist so I made my own Top 10 List. I wrote it in alphabetical order, so I wouldn't have to go insane thinking which film is my most favorite.

#1CHARADE

Stanley Donen

From Maurice Binder's glorious title sequence (accompanied by Henry Mancini's gorgeous music) to the clever denouement; everything about Charade is pure entertainment. And then there's Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, two of the classiest actors in the history of cinema. Hepburn's beauty is enchanting. Most critics call this film as "the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made."

5/01/2011

Most adults, especially the depressed ones, describe childhood as the happiest stage of their life. It is a time when innocence is in full bloom. A time when almost everything is a mystery to our then-innocent eyes. A time when stupid vanity does not exist. And a time when every day is an adventure.

I don't mean to sound cynical, but childhood is not always stress-free. For some it is perhaps the most uncertain period of their life. As children, we don't have enough capacity to decide for ourselves. Somebody else decides for us. Acclaimed Spanish director Carlos Saura described childhood as "a time of terrible indecision."